MAD ABOUT SUPER HEROES VOL. 2(DC Comics)
While MAD’s bad-pun movie parody format is dog-tired (despite sometimes beautiful art), the comic book-specific material in this collection of superhero satire from 2002 onward is cause for celebration to anyone who understands the DC Multiverse and knows that Giant Man and Ant Man are the same person.

LOST Season 2
Tailies and Others and Polar Bears, oh my! The “Fishbowl Study Subjects” theory gains water, but seems way too obvious at this juncture (and we haven’t even gotten to time travel yet… or have we?). Still tons of fun to this latecomer (altho’ that damn Michael can go to Hell!).

2/19/2010

TEMPLE GRANDIN
Movies about the mentally challenged usually annoy with pedantic clichés and sometimes condescending feel-good platitudes (twoexamples). But this HBO biopic about the woman who showed that autism isn’t a disability but simply a different way of thinking is moving without being cloying. Claire Danes gives a strong, insightful performance.

TARZAN
I like Tarzan, but despise Disney, keeping me away in 1999. I finally stumbled across this on cable and my worst fears were confirmed. Overly cute, predictably preachy, Phil Collins’ songs SUCK. And what’s the point of Tarzan growing up with animals that speak ENGLISH? Burroughs rolls in his grave.

2/16/2010

FROM THE ASHES by Bob Fingerman (IDW)
Full disclosure: Not only am I pals with the mighty Fingerman, but my girlfriend Lysa and I are characters in this collected edition of Bob’s “speculative memoir,” making objectivity tough! But it’s no lie to say that for leftie punk misanthropes, this post-apocalyptic fantasy is funny, cathartic and even touching!

THE COMPLETE PEANUTS 1967 TO 1968 by Charles M. Schulz (Fantagraphics)
The second of Schulz’ five decades of PEANUTS winds down with the emphasis continuing to shift from Charlie Brown to Snoopy, the gang getting ethnic with the controversial (really) introduction of Franklin (the Hispanic José didn’t last) and an awful lot of sports gags. Some pretty genius goop still inspires.

2/12/2010

HOUSE M.D. Season 6
While I remain a fan of TV’s most lovable misanthrope, HOUSE’s success fascinates me, being in essence a detective show with mysteries that are utterly unsolvable to any audience member without a PHD in medicine (The patient has Takayasu’s Arteritis! Duh!). A prime television example of character trumping story.

SUPERMEN! THE FIRST WAVE OF COMIC BOOK HEROES 1936-1941 edited by Greg Sadowski (Fantagraphics)
A bizarre collection of stories from the earliest years of superhero comics, when characters with names like “Fero, Planet Detective” and “Cosmic Carson” headlined stories mostly free of logic, characterization or continuity. A fascinating document of an era when a lack of storytelling rules inspired mind-boggling unintentional Dada art.

2/10/2010

SOUL TRAIN: THE HIPPEST TRIP IN AMERICA
Tracking Don Cornelius’ cultural TV watershed on its 40th anniversary from local Chicago show to national phenomenon in the funky early 1970s through the difficult disco years into the transformative hip-hop era (to which Cornelius couldn’t relate), this affecting VH1 documentary will equally stir your soul and your soles!

SMALLVILLE: ABSOLUTE JUSTICE
While it’s nice to see a live-action Dr. Fate, the shoehorning of the JSA (AND the Suicide Squad!) into SMALLVILLE’s already superhero-crowded universe mostly exacerbates the bizarre paradigm of what’s now a Superman show without Superman. The episode’s ill-advised WATCHMEN tone doesn’t integrate well into SMALLVILLE’s light, pretty milieu.

LOST SEASON 1
A very late-to-the-table 50 WORDS will catch up with the heroin-addictive LOST and offer tardy, no doubt already disproven predictions: Season 1 makes me think the island is some kind of traveling alien construct designed to observe captured humans, Ethan Rom and the Others being the jailers…

2/05/2010

NORTH BY NORTHWEST 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Alfred Hitchcock’s most entertaining film gets another reissue that STILL isn’t full VistaVision widescreen. Decent bonus features (some carried over from the previous DVD) are marred by an unforgivable grammatical error (see below), but nitpicking aside, the movie itself is an undeniable classic that belongs in any respectable movie collection.

2/04/2010

FRINGE Season 2
Unlike LOST, J.J. Abrams’ neo-X-FILES is fun whether you’re following the overarching “Pattern” storyline or not. Taken in large doses, FRINGE is as epic and enjoyable as genre TV gets, thanks to smart writing and a superb cast that deftly meld suspense, humor, melodrama, sci-fi and horror.

2/03/2010

CAT BURGLAR BLACK by Richard Sala (First Second)
Sala’s work is a unique mixture of fairy tale whimsy, gothic creepiness and gentle sexuality. This tale of a squad of teenage girl thieves seems geared towards a younger audience, and is mostly setup for an ongoing series (it also seems ripe for TV adaptation), but it’s still ghastly fun.

2/02/2010

THE HANGOVER
After all the hype, perhaps my expectations were too high for this now-iconic comedy. Sure, I laughed, but the puzzle pieces didn’t quite fit in what felt like a cobbled-together, forced conclusion (at least Zach Galifianakis didn’t turn out to be a cylon). Ultimately, THE HANGOVER cheats.

2/01/2010

SATCHMO: THE WONDERFUL WORLD AND ART OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG by Steven Brower (Abrams)
Just as the technical limitations of jazz-age audio recording give an unintended aural patina to Louis Armstrong’s early music, the browning of decades-old scotch-taped photos, typewritten notes and vintage clippings adds to the visual beauty of Satchmo’s reel-tape box and scrapbook collages, creating a mesmerizing 50-year visual biography.

...and don't call me CHIEF!

Bitten by a radioactive silverfish at the age of five, Karl Heitmueller Jr. (aka Kalli, aka Pops Gustav) gained the power of pop culture hyper-perception.
Now as an adult, he writes, draws and cartoons about comics, movies, television, music, Superman, advertising, design, politics, religion, drinking and jerks.
Sometimes all at once.